Paper Mario: Partner Up!
Paper Mario: Partner Up! ''' is the sixth installment in the Paper Mario series. It is the 3rd RPG in the series, and features the return of Paper Mario's partners from Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. This installment is meant to be the celebration for 20 years of Paper Mario. In this installment, Paper Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser are captured by a mysterious being, and it's up to the partners to save him from the being's clutches. Characters: Playable Characters: Helpers Characters: Non Playable Story Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Huey (who has returned from Color Splash) are having tea at the Bros. house, until Parakarry (one of Mario's partners in PM64) stops by to deliver a letter. The letter is an invitation to Kersto's, Kersti's brother, castle for a party. So the gang stops by to meet up with Kersto and Kersti. What felt like a party ended up turning into a nightmare, as Kersto showed the gang to a secret room that led to a surprise. The surprise ended up leading the gang to get trapped in cages. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Huey, Kersti, and Bowser who stopped by early and was trapped. Kersto had planned to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and it's residents ever since, which is why he had gotten the Bros. to join his so called "party". Overtime in the game, he slowly begins to take over the Paper world. Right before Kersto unleashes a demon named Diaphanous, who originates as a demon smoke cloud that had been sealed away for thousands of years, Kersti and Huey escape just in time. During that, Goombella, making a triumphant return, decided to visit Mario in order to inform him about a magical crystal called the "Phantom Shard", which has the ability to give people specific powers. While they do no harm, if it leads into the wrong hands, it would lead to utter destruction to the Paper world. So she sails away from Rogueport to the Mushroom Kingdom. She eventually arrives, but ends up in Goomba Village, where Goombario, who returns again, and his family lives. Goombario is seen playing and running around with his sister. At this point, while Goombella searches for the red plumber, Goombario runs by and trips, leading Goombella to help him. After a long conversation on introducing each other, knowing about Mario, and the Phantom Shard, Goombario and Goombella decided to search for Mario at his house. During this time, Kersti and Huey, whom have escaped from Kersto's clutches, end up meeting the two goombas and talk about how Kersto is going to take over the Kingdom. Kersti and Huey are your helpers in the game, like Starlow from Mario & Luigi. They appear during battle to tell you tips, tutorials, etc. During battle, they will also start a conversation between each other, which leads to arguments. After making it to the Bros. house, they find the letter Kersti and Huey were talking about, and they go inside to find anything they can use to save them. After little to no investigation, they all decided that the only way to stop Kersto and Diaphanous from world domination was to form a familiar team. In other words, they setted off to find Mario's other partners from PM64 and TTYD. Chapters Like any Paper Mario game, this installment will be divided into a Prologue, 8 Chapters, and an Epilogue. *Prologue - Darkness Rises (Goombario and Goombella are located there) *Chapter 1 - A Goomba Tale (Kooper, Bombette, and Lady Bow are located there) *Chapter 2 - Just Like the Good Ol' Days (Sushie, Watt, and Lakilester are located there) *Chapter 3 - Welcome to Rogueport! (Koops, Admiral Bobbery, and Madame Flurrie are located there) *Chapter 4 - The Partner Reunion (Ms. Mowz and Vivian are located there) *Chapter 5 - Finding Goomba (Goombella goes missing) *Chapter 6 - Entrance of Dreams (Dream World where anything can happen, is taken over) *Chapter 7 - Confrontation at the Castle: Boss Rush *Chapter 8 - Space: The Final Frontier (Final Boss is there) *Epilogue - The Big Festival Gameplay The gameplay for Paper Mario: Partner Up! is relatively the same as the battle system in PM64 and TTYD. However, there is a catch. ''Phantom Shard''''' The Phantom Shard, as Goombella mentions in the Prologue, is a crystal that contains the essence of powerful phantoms, and can give someone the ability to show off their powers. The shard is used in battle to give the partners a powerful hitting move, like the Z-Crystals from Pokémon Sun and Moon. The catch being that, no matter which partner you have, say, Vivian and Goombario, you will pull off a uniquely powerful move. The move will be completely different depending on which partners you use. They are only used once during battle. Bosses Most of the bosses from PM64 and TTYD have returned as well as some new ones. Each boss is assigned to each chapter except for Chapter 7. These bosses being: The boss in Chapter 7 is a collaboration of all the bosses from Chapters 1-6. They are only cloned versions of the fights and not the actual bosses themselves. Extras There is a multitude of extra content in Paper Mario: Partner Up! These modes include: *Boss Rush Mode: Where you fight all the bosses in Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 *2 Player Mode: This mode allows for 2 players in Partner Up! The players will each have a split screen mode, and when one of them gets into battle, the other player is forced to join the battle as well *Minigame Mode: There are over 30+ minigames in Minigame Mode *Mario Classics: This mode allows you to play classic demos of Mario games, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine. Each demo is 5:00 minutes long, and if you do each of these challenges in each game: -Reach the Goal Post in Mario 1 -Defeat Birdo in Mario 2 -Reach the Goal Card in Mario 3 -Reach the Goal with Yoshi in Mario World -Collect a Star in Mario 64 -Collect a Shine Sprite in Mario Sunshine Then you will be able to play 10:00 minute demos of each Paper Mario game. From 64 to Color Splash, relive classic moments and experience new ones in this nostalgic mode Trivia *Parakarry from PM64 and Tippi from Super Paper Mario were planned to be in Paper Mario: Partner Up! With Parakarry as another playable partner, and Tippi as another helper. But due to time constraints, Parakarry only makes a cameo at the beginning of the game, and Tippi was never seen in the game Characters: Helpers